Old Keepsake
by BrokenKai
Summary: A little one shot about how James lost his sister to the Death Eaters and making a promise to her, then Harry finds what the promise was and shares it with his friends. Mentioned JamesLily.


_I climb, I slip, I fall  
Into your empty hands, but  
I lay here all alone  
Sweating all your blood.  
If I could find out how  
To make you listen now,  
Because I'm starving for you here,  
With my undying love.  
And I, I will  
Breathe for love tomorrow  
'Cause there's no hope for today._

It's been exactly a year since I've seen my sister Kaitlyn. Exactly a year since she was taken from me. That day was like any normal day that summer. We woke up, Kait made Sirius and me breakfast, she watched us play Quidditch, then told us how excellent we were (she was the blame for making my ego so large), Kaitlyn cleaned the house, yelling at Sirius to bring her his dirty clothes to wash, Sirius yelling back at her, telling her he'd do his own clothes, I'd laugh at their bickering. Then we'd all have lunch and maybe hang out around Diagon Alley before apparating back home and eating dinner, helping Kait do the dishes. But the day ended with tears. I head Kaitlyn sobbing in her room so I comforted her. She asked me to tuck her in like mum used to. So I did. She put on her jammies, we turned on the night-light mum made for her when she was a baby. It was like a lamp on her nightstand, but the lampshade had silhouttes of animals on the inside and it moved, and while it moved, mum would tell her a story. So I told her the story while the lamp moved. She was almost asleep when she interrupted me at the end and said to me, "Jamie, for my birthday, will you make me a lamp like this? Put a stag, a dog, a rat, a werewolf, and a lily flower on it. Make a story of how the stag fell in love with the flower, and the flower loved the stag but would never say her feelings until one day after five years of being chased by the stag, she finally exclaimed her love for them, and they loved each other till the death." I smiled at her words. Then came Sirius, telling me to look out the window and up at the sky. And I saw the Dark Mark, and two minutes later, Death Eaters came bursting in and tearing apart our house and we fought them. We heard a scream upstairs and rushed up to Kait to find her dead in her room on the floor with her wand in her hand. I swear, it was the hardest I fought that night. Once the fight was over, I bawled my eyes dry. I was turning seventeen the next day and my sister died at fifteen.

So I kept my word and for her sixteenth birthday, I made her that lamp. I had a little bit of help from Lily and when I finished it, the Marauders, including me, Lily's friends and her, all gathered in the Head Common Room (because I was Head Boy in my last year at Hogwarts. Yay for me, right? Right.) and we turned off all the lamps, doused the fire and turned on the lamp. I told the story and ended up sobbing at the end. Then at midnight, Sirius and Remus pulled out a birthday cake and we all sang Happy Birthday for Kaitlyn. We ate the cake, and we had tea, and we all ended up falling asleep there. I think that maybe... maybe my sister was watching us from Heaven. And before I finally fell asleep, I think I saw my sister smiling at me with my parents and mouthing thank you to me.

I'll never forget the way she looked on the floor when she died. Her wavy black hair sprawled around her, her blue-grey eyes facing the sky, her face at peace... I'll never forget her. I was hoping that someday, mine and Lily's son/daughter could call her Aunt Kaity.

I love you, Kaitlyn Marie Potter. I love and miss you.

Love,

James,

Your arrogant brother

---

A sixteen-year-old Harry Potter was cleaning out an old Transfiguration classroom for detention one evening and found a sheet of parchment with a sort-of letter thing. He looked for a name and found it at the bottom. _James, Your arrogant brother_. Harry read the letter and even teared up a bit. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

He turned to find a tear-streaked face that belonged to McGonagall, who had read it over his shoulder. "Kaitlyn was the second best Transfiguration student I had in the years she and your father attended this school. James had been the best and it was no doubt that it was my missing bathrobe he used to transfigure into a lamp." Harry chuckled and the Professor laughed a bit herself. "The year after your parents graduated, the new Head Boy and Girl found the lamp in the Head Boy dorm. I have it in my office, if you would like it."

"I'd like it very much, Professor." Harry responded. He had been given the lamp and a slip of parchment containing the story James and Lily had written for it, and he was able to finished up early. He went back to the Common Room where he found Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Neville alone by the fire. They doused the source of heat, turned off the lamps, and turned on the lamp his dad made. While the pictures played on the walls around them, he told the story from the parchment.

**Author's Notes: This came to me while I was making tea. I just started thinking in James' POV and made up his sister, and I was going to end at "Your arrogant brother." I thought, "Well, Harry should be included in this." So I came up with the last part. I don't own any of the characters but Kaitlyn, nor do I own any part of Hogwarts. They came up in J.K. Rowling's head, not mine. And the italicized words at the beginning are a part of the song **_**Breathe**_** by a great band named Paramore. I don't own the song nor the words.**


End file.
